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About Cloud Server images

Last updated on: 2016-06-10

Authored by: Rackspace Support

Creating an image enables you to have saved images for later use as a
template or master image. You can then use the saved images to easily
restore a server to a known configuration or rapidly deploy additional
servers with an identical configuration. Using the Cloud Control Panel, you can create images on-demand.

Note: Because images are not automatically verified they should not
be used as a back-up solution.

Limitations for all server types

Please take note of the following limitations when creating server
images:

Cloud Server images are good for storing configuration and static
data but are not a reliable way to back up a
dynamic database.

Standard backup tools such as mysqldump or the SQL Server Management Studio are more suitable for backing up databases. Be sure to always back up your database before you create an image of your
Cloud Server.

Cloud Server images cannot be transferred between accounts.
You can, however, share images between accounts in the same region. This allows you to build a server from the shared image, and then create a copy of the newly created server.

Image creation can take several hours if the disk is extremely large, so be sure to allot an appropriate amount of time to create an image of your server.

Image creation can have a delayed start if there are a large number
of image requests at one time for a group of servers. The number of
concurrent images are limited in order to keep the disk activity of
multiple images from affecting performance on a host. If the image
takes longer than 24 hours to complete contact Rackspace
Support.

If the image process fails more than once and you’re sure you haven’t
exceeded the image limits, contact Rackspace Support.

If you are using a boot from volume server, you cannot create an image of it. You can, however, create snapshots and clones of a boot from volume server.

Limitations for Linux servers

When an image creation is initiated, the system runs a process that
attempts to reclaim space that has been freed by deleting files
and images. That process continues even if the image creation
process is aborted because of disk limits at the time the
process begins. That means that in some cases, trying to create an image again about a half hour after it fails could result in a successful image process thanks to that cleanup operation.

Limitations for Windows servers

On a Windows Cloud Server, current or previous disk usage
cannot exceed 160GB. Due to limitations with the Windows
filesystem, the underlying virtual hard disk cannot shrink once it
has expanded. Therefore, if you have resized your server larger than
160GB, our imaging system will not be able to take an image of
the server. We recommend taking an image of your
configuration before you reach 160GB of data on a Windows machine
for this reason.

If you take a snapshot of a Windows Cloud Server that is configured
to be a Domain Controller (DC), you will be unable to restore from
that image. Our build system relies on the local administrator
account to perform configuration tasks, and that account becomes
disabled once a server is promoted to be a DC. If you wish to create
a image of a server that is also a DC, you must first
demote it from being a DC before performing the image
creation process.

Other limitations

ISOs cannot be uploaded to Cloud Files and used to build a new Cloud Server.